Technology

Three quick telework factoids

Numbers about telework have been popping up in the news.

Federal News Network Staff

June 20, 2011 4:00 am

1 min read

“Numbers don’t lie,” according to the old chestnut. Then again, Benjamin Disraeli is thought to have said, “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.”

Either way, numbers about telework have been popping up lately. Here are three:

100% – All agencies have now met the deadlines set in the Telework Enhancement Act of 2010. In a news release, OPM Director John Berry said, “We are learning how to best use telework for our many different types of missions and work environments and spreading those lessons from agency to agency.” Over the coming weeks, says the release, telework-eligible employees and their supervisors will then determine what kind of telework is best for their mission, varying from occasional to entirely mobile.
50% – The number of workers at GSA who telecommute at least one day a week. In a GSA blog, Administrator Martha Johnson said at a recent roundtable she “learned that GSA is facing some of the same challenges as our private sector partners, and heard several innovative and inspiring solutions.”
#1 – How Atlanta placed top cities for telework in a recent survey by Microsoft of of information workers. “Part of this can be explained by Atlanta’s growing position as a telecom and IT gateway to the Southeastern U.S., so these type of jobs naturally lend themselves to telework. Information workers in Georgia’s most populous city work at home five days a month — one day more than the national average,” reports GreenBiz.com. Rounding out the top ten (in order) are: Dallas, Phoenix, Seattle, Denver, Boston, Washington, D.C., San Francisco, Houston, and Minneapolis.